Sunday, January 10, 2010

Trumped Up Toy

The boys have really been getting into games lately, and one that we've introduced with decent results is Dominoes. The set we have is made of marble (I think?), and the dominoes are heavy. There aren't a ton of them either, which is fine if you're playing the game, but far from adequate if you want to set up cool domino mazes to knock down. As this was something my brothers and I loved to do as kids, I thought it would be fun to find some that were a bit more kid-friendly.

So when I was shopping for Christmas gifts, I couldn't resist getting some that were Mickey Mouse themed since we were going to Disney World as our big "family gift." And I found this:

Too perfect, right? It is so cute! It was only $5, the dominoes are plastic (there are 140 of them!), Micky Mouse themed, and there is even a cool bridge that comes with it. The boys were excited about it too.

Then I opened the box. The dominoes that I thought were standard sized are, in fact, tiny. Then I discovered that the pictures for said miniscule plastic red rectangles are not actually on them to begin with. Observe, if you will:

I added the Scotch Tape dispenser for a size reference.

They did included a sheet of tiny stickers for lucky parents to adhere themselves. See?

Ok, thought I, not that big of a deal. They are pretty cute. It will take a little time, but for $5 what did I expect?

I expected the stickers to actually stick. But this was not the case. There was no stickiness to these whatsoever. The glue had dried or something and they were just brittle. But, being that Chris had already decided that we should not take it back to the store for a refund, and also because I refuse to let this silly game get the better of me, I decided to use some of my abundant supply of scrapbooking adhesive and stick them on anyway. Take that, greedy corporate Disney marketers! Here's a peek at my process (again, the Scotch Tape was just for size reference):

It took a while, but I didn't really mind as I did it while we watched the season premiere of Chuck. Then I came to the end of the stickers. But I still had a pile of un-decorated dominoes. What the? I read the instruction sheet, and sure enough, there are only 100 stickers for 140 dominoes. I figure that they just don't want to swallow the cost to either include another 100-count sticker page or to create a separate page with just 40. So why not just pretend it was done this way on purpose?

At any rate, the dominoes are ready to play with. I did forget to mention that the aforementioned cool bridge was broken in two places.

Ah, yes, there it is. See how part of Mickey's head is missing? Fresh out of the box like that. I guess you get what you pay for. But we are going to play with this thing and have lots of fun, by golly!

6 comments:

Oh. My. Goodness. That's just ridiculous! I would TOTALLY have taken it back. And sent a letter to the manufacturer. (after finding a sufficient chinese translator online, of course). That's just not right!!!

Thanks for your support, Beth! Yeah, I am kind of in a place where taking a $5 item back would really NOT be worth my while. Plus the boys were anxious to play with it. And I would have, but Chris was against it just because of the trip to the store (and who am I to argue with that logic?).

Logic Schmogic. I just wouldn't want them to have my money. They don't deserve it. :-) We have a special place for things that are going back to the store - on top of the microwave with receipts taped to them. Lol. I'm a professional taker-backer.

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About Me

I am the mother of 3 young boys: twins plus one. My daily life is filled with chaos, but there is also lots of laughter and love. Despite the overwhelming amount of work and the neverending list of thankless chores, I am happy to be home with my trio of boys. There are days when I am on the brink of insanity, but those are the days when I pray a lot and then think about people like my grandmother who had 13 kids. That gives me some perspective. I am striving for balance, which is a real struggle right now. But thankfully God is in control, and this is but one phase in my life's journey. But as for now I am truly in the trenches.